Torres, Mijares out of World Baseball Classic with injuries

UPDATE: I just chatted for a minute with Andres Torres, who will miss the World Baseball Classic with an oblique strain. He’s been dealing with this most of the spring and aggravated the muscle during Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers. He hopes to be out only a week, but even little injuries now are cause to keep players from the WBC.

Torres said he was disappointed, but did not put up a fight when asked to stay here.

“I really want to be there with the team, but my first thing now is to get better,” he said. “I’m going to stay here and get treatment. I hope it’s nothing bad. I just have to make sure I can turn. I can run and catch and hit from the right side. I just can’t hit from the left side. This is really important for me being with the Giants. I want to get healthy and be ready for the season.”

ORIGINAL POST: Morning all. I was out this morning with a little allergy issue when some news came down.

As my friends from the Merc, CSN Bay Area and MLB.com are reporting, Outfielder Andres Torres (Puerto Rico) and left-handed reliever Jose Mijares (Venezuela) will miss the World Baseball Classic because of injuries.

Torres has been bugged by an oblique strain for a while and aggravated it in Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers. He is expected to be out a week. Mijares felt some elbow soreness while allowing two runs in Wednesday’s game against the Angels.

That reduces to eight the number of Giants going to the WBC. They had 11 before Javier Lopez (Puerto Rico) decided not to play just before he bruised the back of his left hand while playing catch.

Meanwhile, manager Bruce Bochy has penned a possible Opening Day lineup for today’s tie against the Mariners. The only exception is Hector Sanchez as DH because the pitchers are not hitting. Actually, Torres conceivably might start in the opener against left-hander Clayton Kershaw. Today’s lineup: